Calling All Sleepycats and Wildcats- f(x)'s RED LIGHT is Here!!!

f(x) Third Album Red Light: Wildcats & Sleepycats versions

  Already been spending the last two weeks listening to a downloaded version of SMEntertainment’s superpower group f(x)’s latest album RED LIGHT, and just today, my K-pop order for the physical albums came in! I’ve mentioned many, many times before how awesome I think f(x)’s releases have been, and Red Light has been no exception, blowing me away with each and every eclectic track, I was THRILLED to find that the actual album’s packaging is JUST as grand!
 Red Light came in two versions, a Wildcats version and a Sleepy Cats version. I had NO IDEA what either of these two concepts were, but I was curious about both of them, and when Kpoptown offered up a special package with both versions AND both posters, I decided to just get ‘em all! Come to find out that the “Wildcats” version is the “western” style theme I loved (where the girls looked like wanted cowboys in the old west) and the “Sleepycats” version had the girls romping around in the wilderness in a very avante-garde blurry style.

Each CD had a thick photobook with terrific pictures of the girls in a variety of looks- from futuristic, urban and pure pop fashion, and OH MY GOD look at these SEXY freaking pictures of SULLI! Holy CRAP, they are really changing her position in the group from the “Cutie” to the “Vixen”, DAMN! So Yummy!

 As well as a trading card in each CD (I got Krystal in one and Sulli in the other) and stickers, the awesome, awesome POSTERS that came with it knocked me OUT! One featured the “wanted” Wildcats cover, the other featured one of the coolest pics from the booklet of the girls in those cowboy outfits looking cool as hell, MAN, I’d wanted this picture since they used it as the intro-picture for their Music Show comebacks, to have a huge poster of it is just the MOST!

Bonus Red Light posters, both Sleepycats and Wildcats versions

Of course, the Main point of this whole thing is the MUSIC, and right now it’s just about my favorite disc! Just like their PINK TAPE album before and even PINOCCHIO from even earlier, every f(x) album is just FILLED with SO MANY cool, eccentric and just plain catchy dance cuts, and here’s just a FEW of ‘em that I really love:

The first time I played "Red Light" in my car, the bass sent my speakers into the red and it wasn't until I got a chance to listen to it at home on my Bose system that I realized how DENSE the bass is in this song- just FLOOR shaking! Super EPIC song!

Pure pop perfection as only f(x) can deliver- reminds me a lot of "Signal" off of Pink Tape.

Just makes you wanna run to the dance floor and boogie down!

After assaulting everyone with the masterpiece that is Red Light, the girls also promoted "Milk", a very "catty" song that really fits in with the album's feline theme, so sassy!

"Dracula"!!! My favorite song off of Red Light, MAN is this song catchy!!! I'm hoping and praying that somehow I'll get to see f(x) performing this one...THIS is the track that really MAKES the album for me!

And the album ends with this really sweet (and very Japanese-flavored) Paper Heart, this track wraps up the album so nicely you're left with this warm fuzzy feeling! Gotta spin it AGAIN!!!

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Mementos of J-Pop Video Past

 I was cleaning out my drawer where I kept my checkbook and bills, and came across a stack of old video rental membership cards. I had, of course, the accounts at all three Tower Records and Blockbuster, but what blew me away was seeing all my old J-POP Video store cards! Back in the days before the internet explosion, just about the only way to get ahold of your favorite J-pop Music Programs like Music Station and Hey Hey Hey Music Champ as well as variety shows like Downtown DX, SMAPxSMAP, and those wonderful FNS “NG” drama shows was to rent them from the Japanese video stores that dotted the Honolulu area!
 I first joined most of these places for Japan Superhero stuff, but once I found you could rent not only the new music shows, but older shows like SOUND ARENA and those elusive RED AND WHITE KOHAKU shows of yesteryear, it became a MUST visit. Since no one video store carried them all, you had to go searching to see what each place had to offer, and to get your weekly fix on J-pop related music and shows, you had to have multiple accounts at ALL of the stores! Japan Video, Nippon Video, Video Japan as well as bookstores like BunBunDo and Hakabundo, I had accounts at all of them, though some I visited very infrequently and the others almost every other day!
  Folks nowadays will NEVER know the thrill of going into the stores and seeing the latest episodes of Music Station ready for rental (and these were about two weeks behind the Japan airtime), MAN, I remember running to the racks and snatching them up, reading the spines of the VHS tapes to see what guests were on that week!  It was pure joy to go home and immerse yourself with the latest catch, and that was actually something that we enjoyed it so much, because BOY, the quality of those rentals sure SUCKED. First off, they re-used the same VHS tapes over and over again, so you can imagine, the generation quality was shaky at best, but the WORST thing about rentals HAD to be the fact that for SOME reason, they only dubbed the shows in MONO! I remember when you’d accidentally get an episode still in stereo, you’d be more excited than a kid finding onion rings in his fries!
  To even DREAM that there’d someday be a way to download or stream watch just about ANY Japanese (or Korean) Music or Variety show on your computer at the touch of a button and have it all in Hi-Definition, thunderous Stereo sound and mere HOURS after airtime was just unimaginable, and I’d never want to go back to the old ways, but boy, I gotta say, coming across these rental cards touched a part of my heart that I’d forgotten all about and made me very nostalgic for those old days!

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